TRIBUTE

Remembering photographer Roger Richards By Nate Van Wagnen

Like so many others who counted Roger as a friend , I was shocked to learn of his passing on Monday , June 24 . Just a few weeks prior , Roger was out shooting the NHRA Thunder Valley Nationals at Bristol Dragway , and I was looking forward to seeing him at an upcoming PDRA race and possibly interviewing him for a feature story . While not the story I originally planned , I decided to join many others in the drag racing community in sharing how Roger made an impact in the sport and in my corner of it .

When I was a young boy scouring the internet for anything I could find about drag racing , photos with Roger Richards ’ watermark were often the first I ’ d find . Six-time IHRA Top Fuel world champion Clay Millican was my John Force when I got into the sport , and Roger was there to photograph many , if not all , of Clay ’ s rear-wing celebrations and winner ’ s circles along the IHRA tour . That became obvious several years later when Roger sent me gigabytes worth of old photos to use for my Clay Millican cover story in 2017 .

When I started going to my local NHRA national event at Summit Motorsports Park , Roger immediately stood out as he manned his post along the retaining walls capturing photos . With his iconic mustache and flat cap , he was unmistakable . When I met him several years later at a test session at South Georgia Motorsports Park , it was like meeting a celebrity . By this point , I ’ d followed him on Facebook for years and admired his photos not just from the racetrack , but also his travels between events . It was obvious this wasn ’ t just a job for Roger . He loved what he did and took every opportunity to appreciate everything that came along with the role .

When I showed up at the Texas Motorplex for the third race of the 2016 PDRA season to fill in for Ian Tocher , who had been covering the series since its inception in 2014 , Roger was one of the first photographers I encountered . Knowing that Ian also took photos to go with his race reports , and that I was no photographer , Roger offered to send me any photos I needed that weekend . It was a standing offer , and one I took him up on many times over the past nine seasons . Each time I requested photos , whether face-to-face in the media center or via email at 2 a . m ., he ’ d respond : “ That ’ ll be a dollar .” Need to plug your charger into Roger ’ s power strip tower ? “ That ’ ll be a dollar

.” Of course , he never intended to collect .

While I can no longer ask Roger the questions I intended to ask , I can find some of the answers in a 2017 CompetitionPlusTV video where videographer Jake Simmons profiled Roger at the NHRA U . S . Nationals . It opens with Roger ’ s classically dry sense of humor .

“ My name is Roger Richards . I ’ ve been doing photography since Thomas Edison and I invented the camera , but I ’ ve only been doing drag racing since around the turn of the century ,” he says .

Roger was introduced to drag racing by a stranger he met on the internet named Bobby Bennett . Roger , who went by the screenname “ Geezer ,” was a wedding and portrait photographer living near Greer Dragway outside Spartanburg , South Carolina , while Bobby was the father of a Jr . Dragster driver . They struck up a friendship in AOL chatrooms , and eventually Bobby asked Roger to take some portrait photos of his son in his fire suit . That led to an outing to Greer Dragway , Roger ’ s first exposure to the sport . When Bobby launched CompetitionPlus . com in the fall of 1999 , Roger signed on as employee # 2 and shot his first national event , the IHRA Fall Nationals at Rockingham Dragway . It was an experience Roger vividly recalled 20 years later .

“ I was standing beside Paul Romine on the starting line , the first time I watched a Top Fueler launch ,” he begins . “ In Rockingham , you can stand pretty darn close behind the wall . He took off . My hat went somewhere . It wasn ’ t from the exhaust or wind or anything . It was just the sound percussion knocked my hat right off my head . I ’ ve still not found that picture . You get the big cars taking off and it starts in your heart , all the

PHOTOGRAPHS BY TARA BOWKER , JOE MCHUGH AND CHRIS GRAVES